Cynthia X. Pan

Dr. Cynthia X. Pan is chief of the Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Care Medicine and designated institutional official (DIO) of graduate medical education (GME) at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens in Flushing, New York, and is professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Pan is the founding director of NYPQ’s palliative care program, which has helped thousands of seriously ill patients and families. Dr. Pan was past program director of NYPQ’s Hospice & Palliative Medicine Fellowship and provides ongoing mentoring for fellows, faculty, and interdisciplinary team members.

Dr. Pan has several grants related to palliative care, including a teaching grant, “GOComm-Primary Care” (Goals of Care Communication), to train primary care clinicians how to open GOC conversations with patients living with serious illness, focusing on culturally underrepresented groups; a Cornell Meyer Cancer Center grant to assess well-being needs of Asian patients living with EGFRm lung cancer; and a grant that funds a palliative care case manager to promote earlier palliative care and hospice referrals among seriously ill hospitalized patients.

Dr. Pan has championed multiple quality improvement projects, including the routine use of MOLST forms, improving appropriate use of NIPPV at end of life, reducing avoidable falls among hospitalized patients, optimizing appropriate use of feeding tubes, promoting early palliative care consultations and hospice screening, and promoting age-friendly care for hospitalized elderly patients. She is passionate about cultural humility, patient-centered care, and shared decision-making.

Dr. Pan has presented in both geriatrics and palliative care national societies, and brings awareness of these topics at the international level through public education. Dr. Pan speaks English, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish. She is proud of her new book, Exit Strategies: Living Lessons from Dying People.